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Trump Marks 100-Day Milestone with Campaign-Style Rally; Trump Skips Correspondents' Dinner; President Trump Not Ruling Out Military Action Against North Korea; Climate Protest Takes on Trump's Policies; Fact-checking Trump's Record as President; Turkey Blocks Access to Wikipedia; Russia's Aeroflot Accused of Discrimination; Endangered Rhino Joins Tinder to Find a Mate. Aired 4-5a ET
Aired April 30, 2017 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:00:10] HANNAH VAUGHAN JONES, CNN ANCHOR: Still feeding red meat to the base. U.S. president Donald Trump marks his 100-day milestone with an unapologetic and determinately populist speech to cheering crowds in Pennsylvania.
GEORGE HOWELL, CNN ANCHOR: And in the meantime it's only a two and a half hour drive but worlds apart journalists gathered for the White House Correspondents' Dinner, although Mr. Trump was a no show. Still the zingers kept coming.
JONES: And happening right now, severe weather bringing death and destruction to the southern United States.
HOWELL: Very important story we're covering.
We want to welcome our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm George Howell at CNN world headquarters in Atlanta.
JONES: And I'm Hannah Vaughan Jones. Live for you here in London. Welcome to the program. This is CNN NEWSROOM.
So it is 9:00 a.m. here on this Sunday morning in London. Saturday, though, was a historic milestone for U.S. president Donald Trump. His 100th day in office. He marked the occasion with a campaign-style rally before a large and supportive crowd in Pennsylvania.
CNN's Jeff Zeleny has our report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: President Trump delivering a rerun of his campaign from last year. In a speech on Saturday evening in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, President Trump ran through a litany of grievances with familiar attacks on the media, familiar attacks on the Obama administration, taking little responsibility for any of his own crises and chaos in the West Wing during his first 100 days.
But he was speaking in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, to loyal supporters at the same time the annual White House Correspondents' Dinner was going on back in Washington. He made that clear from the very beginning of his speech.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: A large group of Hollywood actors.
(BOOING)
TRUMP: And Washington media.
(BOOING)
TRUMP: Are consoling each other in a hotel ballroom in our nation's capital right now.
(CHEERS)
TRUMP: They are gathered together for the White House Correspondents' Dinner without the president.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZELENY: The president did not tell his supporters that he in fact has attended this dinner for years, and he will likely attend it next year, he says. He did turn to other issues as well particularly on China. His language on China so different than during the campaign and he explained exactly why he now says China may not be a currency manipulator.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: And I think it's not exactly the right time to call China a currency manipulator right now. Do we agree with that?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZELENY: The president also said he will decide within the next two weeks whether to pull out of the Paris climate agreement. Of course this was the accord reached during the Obama administration about climate change. He's being advised by some of his officials inside the West Wing to withdraw from this. Others say he should stick with it.
Now this is one of the big decisions, as he said, that's facing him going forward in the next chapter of his presidency.
So many more decisions, as well, as well as some legislative accomplishments like health care and other matters he has yet to achieve during his first 100 days.
Jeff Zeleny, CNN, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOWELL: Jeff Zeleny, thank you for the report. Before going on stage at that rally in Pennsylvania the president
added to his long list of executive actions, signing two new executive orders on trade. One called for a review of all current U.S. trade deals. The other set up a new Office of Trade and Manufacturing.
Mr. Trump has logged 32 executive orders in his first 100 days. That's more than any president since Harry Truman.
JONES: Well, about 100 miles away, 160 kilometers or so, the White House Correspondents' Dinner was being held in Washington. An event Mr. Trump refused to attend. It is the first time in more than three decades that the sitting U.S. president has not attended the dinner. Despite his absence journalists still addressed Mr. Trump's attacks against the media.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BOB WOODWARD, ASSOCIATE EDITOR, WASHINGTON POST: The effort today to get this best obtainable version of the truth is largely made in good faith.
Mr. President, the media is not fake news.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JONES: Well, comedian Hasan Minhaj headlined the event and joked that he was advised not to take on the Trump administration but of course he did.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[04:05:03] HASAN MINHAJ, COMEDIAN: Thank you. You know Donald Trump doesn't drink, right? Does not touch alcohol which is oddly respectable, but think about that. That means --
(LAUGHTER)
MINHAJ: Every statement.
(LAUGHTER)
MINHAJ: Every interview, every tweet, completely sober.
(LAUGHTER)
MINHAJ: How is that possible? We've all had that excuse, haven't we? Like, I said what? No, listen, babe, I swear to you, I was hammered. That's not who I really am. What does Donald Trump tell Melania? "Listen, babe, last year on that bus with Billy Bush, that's exactly who I am."
(LAUGHTER)
MINHAJ: He tweets at 3:00 a.m. sober. Who is tweeting at 3:00 a.m. sober? Donald Trump because it's 10:00 a.m. in Russia. Those are business hours. (END VIDEO CLIP)
JONES: Well, the White House Correspondents' Dinner is held every year to celebrate the press and to raise money for journalism scholarships.
HOWELL: That's right. And our colleague Ryan Nobles was at the correspondents' dinner and he filed this report from the red carpet.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RYAN NOBLES, CNN WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Well, it was a black tie event and there was a red carpet but there's no doubt that the White House Correspondents' Dinner was much different this year in Washington, D.C. than it's been years past and the main reason being that the president of the United States was not here.
Donald Trump telling the White House Correspondents Association via tweet several weeks ago that he had no plans on attending this dinner making him the first commander-in-chief since Ronald Reagan back in 1981 to not attend the dinner. Reagan wasn't here because he was recovering from an assassination attempt. But he still called in to that dinner.
The president wasn't the only one not here. This was also -- there were also far less A-list celebrities that made their way down this red carpet. Very different than it was during the Obama administration. But many of the journalists in attendance here today thinking that perhaps that's a good thing. That the focus of this dinner can go back to its main purpose and that's to raise money for aspiring journalists through a scholarship fund.
So no president, no celebrity, but still what many consider to be a successful White House Correspondents' Dinner here in Washington.
Ryan Nobles, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOWELL: Ryan, thank you.
Now with regards to the tensions on the Korean peninsula the U.S. president is not ruling out taking military action, that is if North Korea carries out another nuclear test. In a new interview he also seemed to downplay the latest missile launch attempted by Pyongyang. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN DICKERSON, CBS ANCHOR: Mr. President, you and the administration said to North Korea, don't test a missile. They have tested a missile. Is the pressure not working?
TRUMP: Well, I didn't say don't test a missile. He's going to have to do what he has to do. But he understands we're not going to be very happy. And I will tell you, a man that I've gotten to like and respect, the president of China, President Xi, I believe has been putting pressure on him also. But so far perhaps nothing is happening and perhaps it has.
This was a small missile. This was not a big missile. This was not a nuclear test, which he was expected to do three days ago. We'll see what happens.
DICKERSON: You say not happy. What does that mean?
TRUMP: I would not be happy. If he does a nuclear test, I will not be happy. I can tell you also, I don't believe that the president of China, who is a very respected man will be happy either.
DICKERSON: Not happy meaning military action?
TRUMP: I don't know. I mean, we'll see.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JONES: Now Will Ripley is the only U.S. TV reporter in North Korea right now. He's there on his -- get this, his 12th trip. And joins me now live from Pyongyang.
Will, great to have you on. Donald Trump there saying he would not be happy if there's further provocation from North Korea, also suggesting that China would not be happy either. Is that enough of a deterrent for Kim Jong-un?
WILL RIPLEY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: In a word no, but it certainly does send an interesting message, doesn't it? Because we know that the United States and China appear to be, according to President Trump, and hints that we get out of Beijing as well in close communication on the North Korean issue, Chinese state media over the last week or so has really been -- they had their state-run "Global Times" putting out these editorials, you know, warning Pyongyang that they would face grave consequences for a possible sixth nuclear test.
The fact that President Trump said they expected a nuclear test to happen just three days before that interview which happened I believe on Saturday or Friday in the United States, I'm not entirely sure, I think it was on Saturday, so the fact that they apparently thought there would be a nuclear test just in the last week that's new information that we haven't heard before.
I don't know if he's hearing that from cable news or if that's U.S. intelligence that he revealed during that interview because the last that we heard the Punggye-ri nuclear site had actually appeared to have stood down from being -- having a nuclear test imminent. So is the pressure from Beijing working?
[04:10:04] North Korea would never acknowledge that. They would never say that pressure from China is influencing in any way their activities, but apparently the U.S. and China had made it clear that this sixth nuclear test is a red line but these so-called small missiles like the modified scud that North Korea intended to launch in the early morning hours on Saturday that blew up about -- after traveling just 22 miles blew up over North Korean territory. The president almost sending a message that that kind of provocation is acceptable. That these large scale, live fire drills are acceptable but that this nuclear test is not acceptable.
And the North Koreans say they'll conduct another nuclear test when they're ready no matter what the U.S. and China thinks but after supposedly having a nuclear test imminent they haven't done one yet. So what they're thinking in Pyongyang? We may never know what's happening behind closed doors obviously but the actions so far have not led to a significant response from the U.S. or China. And so that is noteworthy for sure.
JONES: We may mark what's going on in Pyongyang at the moment with these missile tests, I think it was the sixth one that we've seen this year, but are we at the stage now where with each tests, Pyongyang is getting ever closer to actually producing a long range ballistic missile that could threaten mainland U.S.?
RIPLEY: Absolutely. You know, even though this test was a failure, each failure teaches rocket scientists just as much if not more as a success. So on six different occasions North Korea has attempted to launch missiles since the beginning of the Trump administration so now in the first 101 days or so and they've actually attempted to launch at least nine missiles. And so there have been some successes, there have been failures but with each case North Korea learns more.
And I just want to show you, too, this live image that we have of Pyongyang. This is the only day off of the week for people who live here in North Korea. Life goes on as normal in this city. People have the day off. They're out, they're playing sports, really oblivious to all of what's happening in the outside world or if they are made aware through their state media. They say they're not concerned. They're not worried about war. They're going on with their lives here.
JONES: Fascinating to get an insight into what is going on in that secretive state.
Will Ripley there, live for us in Pyongyang, thank you.
HOWELL: Live in the U.S. and around the world this hour this is CNN NEWSROOM. And still ahead, lives have been lost. There is widespread destruction as severe storms tear through the southern part of the U.S. We'll have the very latest on that weather system ahead.
Plus thousands of protesters marching in blistering heat, even snow, demanding the president of the U.S. change his environmental policies.
Stay with us. This is CNN NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[04:16:35] JONES: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. It is Sunday morning here in London.
Now thousands of people across the United States marched in protest against President Donald Trump's environmental policies.
CNN's Brian Todd was in Washington where celebrities such as Leonardo DiCaprio joined in those demonstrations. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A mass of thousands making their way up Pennsylvania Avenue from the United States capitol to the White House. They're here today to mark President Trump's 100th day in office and shine a light on policies they say constitute the biggest assault on the environment from any administration in history.
(On camera): The administration says that they can drill for resources that they desperately need without hurting the environment. Do you believe them? And what do you say to that?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not one bit. They've had over, what, 800 spills. And it's not going to work out.
TODD (voice-over): These protesters say the Trump administration's policy have prioritized economic growth over environmental concerns, but Trump's tweets suggest a balanced approach, quote, "I am committed to keeping our air and water clean but always remember that economic growth enhances environmental protection. Jobs matter."
In Trump's first 100 days, his Environmental Protection Agency has moved swiftly to roll back Obama-era regulations on fossil fuels and given the green light to the Keystone XL pipeline which the Obama administration had blocked. And on Friday, the EPA removed most of the information on climate change from its Web site, explaining in a press release it's being updated to, quote, "reflect the approach of new leadership."
Activists here say that under the Obama administration there was steady progress toward clean energy sources and away from fossil fuels.
MAY BOEVE, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, 350.ORG: That was starting to happen and it was slow, but there were signs of momentum. And if every single one of those decisions is being challenged, is being blocked, and we've got oil tycoons running the government.
GENE KARPINSKI, LEAGUE OF CONSERVATION VOTERS: This is the 10th day of the Trump administration, the most anti-environmental in our history. And today is a critically important day to send a message to the president that the public is against all that he is doing.
TODD: After arriving at the White House, a sit-in, silent except for the simulated heartbeats to show their unity and conviction.
This protest, held in conjunction with hundreds of similar events across the U.S. and around the world. Participating in the D.C. event like-minded politicians and celebrities, including former Vice President Al Gore and Leonardo DiCaprio. SEN. JEFF MERKLEY (D), OREGON: After today, what is the most
important step for people on climate change? We need to take the energy here. We need to take these people's energy. We need to go back to our communities. Please run for office. Let's take this people's power until it's right up until we retake control of the building behind us.
TODD (on camera): Two protest leaders stressed to me they don't want an adversarial debate with President Trump over these issues. They point out economic growth doesn't have to come at the cost of the environment. And they say for the past eight years, it didn't. These activists say they are ready to work with the President Trump if he is ready to embrace that idea, but they're also ready to lead more protests if he doesn't.
Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOWELL: Brian Todd, thank you.
Now to the political bromance of 2016. It was then presidential candidate Donald Trump and the Russian president Vladimir Putin. Certainly a relationship that raised eyebrows about possible connections between the two, a story we continue to follow. And based on Trump's rhetoric on the campaign trail observers thought the old Cold War enemies might set off to become allies.
[04:20:03] But as CNN's Matthew Chance reports relations between Moscow and the U.S. are rocky since Trump took office.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At first, he was the darling of the Kremlin-controlled media. Russian state television fawning over Donald Trump and his pro-Moscow promises.
TRUMP: Wouldn't it be nice if we actually got along with Russia? Wouldn't that be -- wouldn't that be nice?
CHANCE: There were even Trump election parties in Moscow with some Russians literally toasting their good fortune. "To Donald Trump," cheered this prominent nationalist politician. "Now we can become allies in Syria and Ukraine," he declared. "Maybe America can stop funding NATO."
It was, of course, wishful thinking. Talk of partnership ended in a barrage of 59 U.S. cruise missiles aimed at Russia's Syrian ally. The Assad regime air base targeted may have been moderately damaged, but prospects for a Trump-Putin friendship were blasted into smithereens. The Russian president preferred understatement.
VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (Through Translator): One could say the level of trust on a working level and especially on a military level has not improved. Rather it has deteriorated. CHANCE: In fact, that deterioration began well before, amid lingering
allegations of Russian interference in the U.S. presidential election and a suspected Russian links with Trump officials, reporting of which annoyed the Kremlin as much as it did the White House.
MARIA ZAKHAROVA, RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY SPOKESWOMAN: Come on, stop -- stop spreading lie and false news. This is a good advice for CNN.
CHANCE (on camera): Are you concerned that the investigations into Russia are going to turn up more secret meetings?
ZAKHAROVA: Please stop spreading lies and false news.
CHANCE (voice-over): It was that almost constant flow of bad news that may have eventually taken its toll. Disillusioned Russians protested that the amount of Trump coverage on their television screens.
"We're all against Trump-mania here," said this woman.
Behind the complaints, though, real disappointment with Trump's first 100 days saw hopes of an early diplomatic thaw with Russia slip away.
Matthew Chance, CNN, Moscow.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
JONES: Thank you, Matthew, there with that report on those some awkward moments and presidential U-turns.
Now Donald Trump's first 100 days in office paint a picture of unpredictability at the center of U.S. government so CNN decided to take a closer look at a couple of key foreign policy issues of the Trump administration. NATO and ISIS.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SR. INTL. CORRESPONDENT: I'm Nick Paton Walsh in Irbil, Northern Iraq. And ISIS were losing when Trump came to power and they still are, despite a torturous, bloody battle for those civilians caught in their grip.
In the last 100 days those losses have continued here in Iraq. They're said to have about 7 percent of territory down from a third at their height and in neighboring Syria, the noose around their self- declared capital of Raqqa, well, that's definitely tightening.
The issue is, this isn't really necessarily Trump's doing. You'll struggle to find people who say he's majorly changed the pace or nature of battle at all. This is the old Obama-Pentagon plan simply playing out.
ERIN MCLAUGHLIN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Erin McLaughlin in London. At NATO headquarters, it's known as the overt, obsolete. That's how President Trump described the North Atlantic Treaty Organization while on the campaign trail. He since openly acknowledged he didn't know much about the alliance at the time of those remarks but he nevertheless has taken credit for re-focusing NATO on the areas of counterterrorism and increased defense burden sharing.
NATO officials say that those areas have been a priority of the alliance for years but a NATO diplomat tells me that as a result of President Trump's remarks there has been a renewed focus on the areas of counterterrorism and defense spending, and that we could see concrete steps forward in those areas as early as May.
President Trump says that NATO is, quote "no longer obsolete," and NATO officials say that after 100 days in office they believe President Trump has a clear picture of the importance of the NATO alliance.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOWELL: U.S. president making several changes since being on the campaign trail and now taking office. We'll of course follow all of the details of the president's first 100 days here on NEWSROOM.
We're following the story in Dallas, Texas, of a massive tornado that ripped through a community. It killed at least five people and injured dozens of others. The system that spawned that twister, though, it is not done cutting through a deadly path.
[04:25:04] Let's bring in our meteorologist Derek Van Dam to talk about this. This is in the northern part of Texas near Dallas.
(WEATHER REPORT)
HOWELL: Thank you so much.
JONES: Derek, George, thanks very much indeed. We'll stay of course with that story. And of course the other stories as well. Stay with us this hour because coming up after the break as Donald Trump reaches an important milestone in his presidency we'll take a closer look at what he has and has not accomplished in his first 100 days, plus the parents of Madeleine McCann say they are still hopeful she is alive 10 years after she vanished. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[04:31:31] HOWELL: Welcome back to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. It is good to have you with us. I'm George Howell in Atlanta.
JONES: And I'm Hannah Vaughan Jones live for you in London. Just gone 9:30 this Sunday morning with the headlines for you this hour.
U.S. president Donald Trump celebrated his 100th day in office with a campaign-style rally in Pennsylvania. He told the cheering crowd he was thrilled to be out of the swamp of Washington for a few hour hours.
HOWELL: That rally was held at the same time as this year's White House Correspondents' Dinner in Washington, D.C. Mr. Trump skipped that dinner making it the first time in more than three decades that a sitting U.S. president has not attended it. Comedian Hasan Minhaj headlined the dinner and roasted the absent president. The annual event raises money for journalism scholarships.
JONES: An American warship is now in Korean waters doing military drill with South Korea's Navy. The exercises could further raise nuclear tensions with North Korea. Meanwhile President Trump says he hasn't fulfilled his campaign promise of calling out China as a currency manipulator because he's relying on the Chinese president to pressure Pyongyang.
HOWELL: Near Dallas, Texas, officials say a tornado has killed at least five people and town, dozens of others are receiving emergency care at nearby hospitals. The storm ripped through the community, tearing through some neighborhoods. One home even had its entire roof blown off. Rescue teams are now searching for survivors. It's a story we continue to follow.
Many Trump voters had hoped that he would be the man to shake up Washington but how much has the president actually lived up to his campaign promises on the campaign trail as we mark these first 100 days?
Our Tom Foreman has the record.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): One hundred days of promises colliding with political reality started with a staggering loss.
TRUMP: On my first day, I'm going to ask Congress to send me a bill to immediately repeal and replace -- repeal and replace -- repeal and replace that horror show called Obamacare.
FOREMAN: That pledge brought surefire applause on the campaign but calamity in office. The president's party even with control of Congress found itself bitterly divided. Some saying his plan went too far, some not far enough. And his first attempt at major legislation was yanked without a vote.
REP. PAUL RYAN (R), HOUSE SPEAKER: I will not sugarcoat this. This is a disappointing day for us.
FOREMAN: Despite continued talk about a pledge to build a border wall and have Mexico pay for it --
TRUMP: The wall gets built, 100 percent.
FOREMAN: -- there is no concrete progress on that either.
True, this president has signed more legislation than any of the previous five presidents in the same period, much of it erasing Obama- era regulations. But none of it produced the broad public impact typical of major laws. For that, he has turned to executive actions, signing more than any
other president in the first 100 days since Harry Truman, quickly wiping out the trade deal known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
TRUMP: We just officially terminated TPP.
FOREMAN: But his most incendiary idea, banning travel from several majority Muslim nations, has stalled in the courts over the administration's protests.
REX TILLERSON, SECRETARY OF STATE: Protecting the nation from foreign terrorist entry into the United States is a vital measure for strengthening our national security.
FOREMAN: The legal branch of government is where President Trump has scored by far his biggest victory.
[04:35:04] TRUMP: We have to replace Judge Scalia with a conservative, great judge.
JUSTICE NEIL GORSUCH, U.S. SUPREME COURT: I Neil M. Gorsuch --
FOREMAN: Despite overwhelming Democratic opposition, Neil Gorsuch was approved and seated on the Supreme Court.
TRUMP: And I got it done in the first 100 days. That's even nice.
FOREMAN: Even as the courts overall challenged other Trump initiatives, including his attempt to cut funding from so-called sanctuary cities for not helping enforce immigration laws.
Meanwhile, on the foreign front, the president reversed on his campaign promise not to intervene in Syria, taking fast action following a Syrian gas attack, unleashing a barrage of missiles and the "mother of all bombs" in Afghanistan, raising tensions not merely in the Middle East but also with far-flung allies and adversaries including North Korea.
His meetings with foreign leaders came with the backdrop of a fiscal plan to substantially boost U.S. military spending while cutting budgets for many other agencies.
TRUMP: You know, I tweeted today, @RealDonaldTrump, I tweet. You know, it's awesome. Don't worry, I'll give it up after I'm president. We won't tweet anymore, I don't think.
FOREMAN: And of course, there were tweets. Unproven claims of voter fraud, unproven accusations of President Obama wiretapping Trump Tower, and a relentless stream of attacks on the media about what President Trump calls fake news, especially over the march of stories about possible Russian ties to his circle.
(On camera): This president has undeniably pushed forward at a breakneck pace and perhaps many of his promises will yet come to pass. Faced with a string of protests and a plummeting approval rating, his first 100 days, as he himself has hinted, have been more complicated than expected.
Tom Foreman, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOWELL: More complicated than expected. Tom Foreman, thanks for the reporting.
Let's bring in now Brendon O'Connor, an associate professor of American politics at the University of Sidney in Australia.
It's good to have you with us, Brendon. The president says that he believes that he's done very well with his first 100. What are your thoughts?
BRENDON O'CONNOR, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF SIDNEY: Well, it was always going to be difficult to govern when you are so inexperienced. And we didn't have a big gauge. So there's been a lot of chaos, there's been difficulty with messaging.
A new administration in the United States requires to fill a lot of positions within the executive, within the State Department, and hardly any positions have been filled. So it wasn't a Trump team. It was a bit of a one-man show with a few sort of alt-right campaigners working for him. He struggled therefore to govern because he doesn't have the people in place. Doesn't have the experience in this (INAUDIBLE) within the new administration between the Reince Priebus establishment arm of the administration and the Steve Bannon arm, the more, you know, far-right conservative sort of nationalist arm of the administration so it hasn't been great governing even if you -- you know, whether you make of the policies. It just hasn't been very smooth at all.
HOWELL: Brendon, while you're speaking we were looking at this campaign rally, this campaign-style rally that the president held in Pennsylvania.
Look, he was surrounded by his supporters. He hit on some of the popular things that he hit on during the campaign. Attacking the media, things of that nature. But listen to what one CNN commentator had to say, David Gergen, about his speech there in Pennsylvania. We can talk about it on the other side.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVID GERGEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: To bring your campaign speech into the presidency is something presidents rarely do. This was the most divisive speech I have ever heard from a sitting American president. Others may disagree about that. He played to his base and he treated his other listeners, the rest of the people who have been disturbed about him or opposed to him, he treated them basically as I don't care -- I don't give a damn what you think because you're the enemy. You're like the enemy with the press. I thought it was a deeply disturbing speech.
(END VIDEO CLIP) HOWELL: David Gergen's words. He believes Mr. Trump doesn't give a dam about the people who oppose him. Your thoughts.
O'CONNOR: Well, that is in some ways true. I mean, Trump is 70. He doesn't -- it's very hard to message, very hard to tell him, look, you've got to change the way, reverse in his ways. But what's fascinating about that speech and the campaign rhetoric is it hasn't really been followed in terms of domestic policy. Tax cuts, deregulation of some of the financial sector and deregulation of some environmental policies.
These are standard Republican public policies that we got from George W. Bush. These aren't bringing back jobs to America, protecting American manufacturing industries from the Chinese, calling China out as a currency manipulator, putting a 45 percent tariff on Chinese goods or sort of getting NAFTA and tearing it up. He's done none of those things so he's made a lot of promises to this white sort of base in the Midwest, who felt the effects of the industrialization. But he's delivered very little to them.
[04:40:14] Now he's (INAUDIBLE) immigration that he sees as connected to those issues very wrongly but he hasn't delivered much so he keeps going back to these people for adulation, and they're not seeing their children getting more stable jobs and more stable economic lives. At some point the show has got to be up, he cannot deliver on some front. And the problem is, it's been -- a lot of it has been politics by anecdote. He's gone to Carrier in Indiana and said look, I'm going to save this air conditioning firm. I'm going to stop Ford from going down to Mexico. And he's (INAUDIBLE) way of things so it's going to be very difficult for him on foreign policy when it's so haphazard.
HOWELL: Brendon O'Connor, it is good to get your insight live for us. Thank you so much for your time.
O'CONNOR: My pleasure.
JONES: Plenty more coming up on Trump's 100 days. Also after the break, Turkey's failed coup may have been months ago but the government's crackdown there appears to be expanding. We're going to take you live to Istanbul for the very latest.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOWELL: It's been nearly 10 years since little Madeleine McCann went missing and her parents are now speaking out to mark the anniversary. Madeleine was just 3 years old when she disappeared during a family vacation in Portugal on May 3rd, 2007. She'd be nearly 14 years old now. Her parents say they still have hope that their daughter is alive. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GERRY MCCANN, MADELEINE'S FATHER: I think it's been good for the general public to hear the police say that there's no evidence that she's dead and that it's an active investigation and there's still hope. So certainly from my point of view, you know, somebody knows what's happened.
[04:45:01] KATE MCCANN, MADELEINE'S MOTHER: There is progress being made. And, you know -- it might not be as quick as we want, but there's real progress being made. I think we need to take heart from that. And we just have to go with the process and follow it through, whatever it takes, for as long as it takes. You know, but there's still hope that we can find Madeleine.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOWELL: Still hope. Detectives in the case of the missing British girl say they are still pursuing critical leads in the case.
JONES: George, thank you.
Nearly 4,000 Turkish public employees have been fired over alleged national security concern. That is according to a government Web site. It's all part of Ankara's ongoing purge after last July's failed coup. TV dating shows have also been banned and now Wikipedia has been blocked. Turkish state media says the online encyclopedia is part of a, quote, "smear campaign" against Turkey in the international arena. This all comes just two weeks after the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, won sweeping new powers in a referendum.
And our senior international correspondent Ben Wedeman joins me now live from Istanbul.
Ben, tens of thousands of people have been detained since this coup attempt last summer. We're now hearing about this censorship of the press. It seems President Erdogan is flexing his newfound muscles very quickly.
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, he is. He is flexing his newfound muscles at this point. We've seen 120,000 people dismissed from their jobs since July 15th of last year when that failed coup occurred. 40,000 are in prison at the moment as a result. And of course yesterday 4,000 people, state employees dismissed. Wednesday a thousand policemen dismissed and yesterday morning around 10:00 in the morning we saw that Wikipedia was blocked.
Now the Turkish government has in the past blocked other sites including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube but this is the first time they've blocked Wikipedia. Now the Turkish government didn't give specific reasons why Wikipedia is blocked but there is some speculation that it's because the Wikipedia entry on the referendum -- excuse me -- that occurred on the 16th of April which gave the president sweeping new powers did include some rather negative entries or mentions of that vote. That may be the reason behind that.
Now a court has two days to possibly overturn this decision by the government to block Wikipedia but at this point it is, yes, another indication that following that referendum which the president didn't really win with a mandate in any sense. He won by 51 percent as opposed to 48 who've rejected the referendum but he does seem to think it's enough of a mandate to round up more potential opponents and silence more potential forms of opposition -- Hannah. JONES: Yes. A very narrow margin of victory in the referendum, as
you say, Ben. Turkey is a member of NATO. Is there much concern, any concern among its fellow member states, and also human right observers as well as to what's going on in Turkey right now?
WEDEMAN: Well, human rights observers are very concerned about this situation here. Turkey is the world's largest jailer of journalists. We are seeing a gradual narrowing of the area of freedom of expression.
As far as NATO is concerned that's a different sort of subject all together really that has more to do with differences over the conflict in Syria. The United States of course supports factions in Syria that the Turkish government considers to be affiliated with the Kurdish Workers' Party, the PKK, which Turkey is adamantly opposed to and considers a terrorist organization, so Turkey does definitely feel that it's under attack from a variety of directions from the PKK, from Fetullah Gulen, who is that U.S. based cleric who believe -- that Turkey believes was behind the coup. And also there have been a variety of terrorist attacks by ISIS so definitely the Turkish government feeling under pressure at the moment from a variety of directions -- Hannah.
JONES: Ben, we appreciate your reporting. Ben Wedeman live for us there in Istanbul in Turkey. Thank you.
HOWELL: Still ahead here. We have a story about flight attendants who lost their livelihoods because of how they look. We'll hear about the Russian airline accused of discrimination as CNN NEWSROOM continues.
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[04:53:43] HOWELL: A Russian airline is accused of discriminating against women because of their size. Aeroflot denies the claim but flight attendants are complaining they're getting less work because they don't fit the part.
Our Diana Magnay takes a closer look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DIANA MAGNAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Perfect lips and the perfect manicure. The hammer and sickle of Aeroflot, staffed it seems by just the long legged.
(On camera): But what if you don't look like this? Did you do this?
EVGENIA MAGURINA, AEROFLOT FLIGHT ATTENDANT: Yes, because my size is more -- so I had to change my --
MAGNAY: But you've done this very well.
(Voice-over): Last summer, Aeroflot flight attendant, Evgenia Magurina, was told she must be photographed head and full body shots. And then her career with Aeroflot changed. MAGURINA: Fifteenth of August, I didn't fly international flights
because they have said that I am fat, ugly, and old.
MAGNAY (on camera): Your boss said that to you?
MAGURINA: Yes.
MAGNAY (voice-over): Here, an internal Aeroflot document, Evgenia let us photographed, showing the salary deductions of up to 100 rubles, or just a little under $2, per flight hour for staff who don't meet Aeroflot's standards, size included. That adds up.
[04:55:10] Evgenia and another flight attendant took Aeroflot to court, claiming discrimination, and lost. An Aeroflot union rep tells me there are plenty of other female flight attendants who are too scared to speak out against Russia's national flag carrier.
ILONA BORISOVA, FLIGHT ATTENDANT UNION (Through Translator): Several hundred have been affected by this, but most of them have families or old parents or small children, so they're trying to hold on to their jobs any way they can.
MAGNAY: At a news conference last week, a representative from Aeroflot's public council encouraged larger stewardesses to find another job or to lose weight like he had.
NIKITA KRICHEVSKY, AEROFLOT PUBLIC COUNCIL (through translation): It didn't require any active exercise or expensive supplements or anything that would require spending a lot of money. I just corrected my meal plan. Now I weigh 80 kilograms. I don't understand why the requirement to be within this size range is such a mission impossible.
MAGNAY: Aeroflot says these men don't speak for the company. They also deny discrimination, but stand by their policies, saying, "Cabin crew of a national flag carrier are the calling card of their country. Their deportment and how they serve passengers creates the first impression of and attitude towards Russia."
(On camera): Evgenia and her colleague plan to appeal, but this story with its suggestions of latent chauvinism widely covered in this country, and beyond, creates a nasty tailwind for one of Russia's proudest brands.
Diana Magnay, CNN, Moscow.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
JONES: And that wraps this hour of CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Hannah Vaughan Jones in London.
HOWELL: And I'm George Howell in Atlanta. More news after the break.
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